Tall Tale
by Ender the multiverse Detective
Summary: Faded and pale, a single soul slips through the cracks of reincarnation. Now someone else with nothing but vague impressions and stories filling his head, he'll try to make sure things turn out for the better.


Dying is an interesting experience for anyone, I guess it's one of the questions we all want answered, what happens when we kick the bucket. Well, I got an answer for ya.

It's boring, very, very boring. It's like a sensory deprivation tank, all you have is your thoughts in the big, black, void. It's scary for the first few minutes because _Holy Shit Im Dead!_ then you're filled by a sense of peace for what feels like a couple of hours, then you get fed up with it.

I've been here for… what? A few days, weeks… months?

All I really do know at this point is boredom. At first I thought about my life ending, because wow, just that morning I was confident in that _my whole life ahead of me_ kind of way, next thing I know I'm laying on the ground with a aching head and some guy… was it a guy? Someone standing over me.

Then I'm here, in this empty space. I'm honestly just assuming this is death, I don't actually remember the dying part.

I don't even know what hit me, could have been the person that was there, mugger or something.

I've had a lot of time to think since I got here is what I'm trying to say. Once you get past the _I'm dead!_ part you really start thinking about your life. I have a lot of regrets, yeah, but… I was happy.

I thought about my regrets, mistakes, lies, a lot, more than I probably should have, but it honestly gave me a bit of closure.

After all of that, it's just boredom, sure I could keep on thinking about my life, try to find some deeper meaning in this abyss, maybe the meaning of life or something.

But honestly… what use is all that if I'm already dead, why care anymore. At this point, all I want is something interesting.

* * *

A thought crossed my mind as I observed the endless void, am I just gonna be here forever, is this honestly all there is?

I've been here for a long time, honestly longer than I've ever been in one place. I've been trying to keep myself occupied, but there is only so much cheap cartoon sea shanties can do. I've already counted three million bottles of beer, eight thousand hot chocolates, and, when I was feeling particularly silly twenty thousand oranges… no, it was apple's, how did I forget that?

Look, what I'm trying to illustrate is that's it's been a very, very long time since I died. I can't say how long, I've no way to keep track of it, but, at least more than a year, I think?

I wonder how my family's doing? I wonder how my funeral went? I always told them I wanted to be buried with my stupid pink boa. I can still remember when my brother got it for me, It was supposed to be a prank, a gag gift, but god did I love that thing. I loved how flamboyant and bright it was, and how soft it felt when I wore it…

I really miss him

* * *

Something's wrong.

My name, why can't I remember my name!? That's not something you just forget!

It's not just that…

Oh god… what color were my eyes, my hair. What town did I live in…

It's gone, it's all gone!

Now that I try to remember, I'm finding so many holes, so many bits and pieces of information that I shouldn't be able to forget. This… how much have I forgotten, how much do I not remember that I forgot?

Calm down, come on, Calm down E…

I'm going to lose myself here aren't I?

Someone please, help me...

* * *

It's been so long… So, so long since I've got here.

I think I died? I'm not entirely sure anymore, I've forgotten so much. What I can remember is bits and pieces, flashes of moments that seem so vague…

It's the worse kind of torture. This place, it's slowly taking away everything I was, and everything I am. Every moment I can feel another precious memory slip away.

At first, I just tried to think about my family, trying to keep the memories I had left of them at the forefront of my mind. I thought that if I constantly thought about them I couldn't forget.

How wrong I was, this place, it's truly insidious in how it works. It takes away the things you think about the most and works down from there. The more I thought about my family, my loved one, the faster I forgot.

Of course, it was too late when I realized this, I had already lost practically all identifying information, all that's left in my head is the vague motion that I had a family, and the fact that I forgot about them.

So now I'm here, stuck with ever-fading moments of a life I barely know I lived…

I wonder how much longer I'm going to last, how much longer I am I going to truly be me?.

* * *

It's really quiet in here…

Sometimes I wonder why it's so dark, why I was here, why couldn't I remember, why why why?. There are a lot of why's with me.

But mostly I wonder why it's so quiet. I can't even hear myself breathing.

I can't move any of limbs either, but then again, I can't even remember the last time I could, only that I was able to. I wonder if I did something wrong, during whatever there was before the Dark. That I had offended someone so grand and important that they had dramatically sent me off to the darkness for a thousand years.

I have fantasies like that a lot, that something interesting had happened before. I'm constantly making up stories.

But then again, that's all I have now, a brain filled with countless stories yet I know that none of them are mine, but others whose exploits amazed me.

I enjoy dreaming about them once in a while, drawing up world in my mind filled with colors I had forgotten and people I had not. They were never as amazing as the original was what I told myself, but they gave me a way pass the time in this void while I waited for… while I waited.

Maybe one day, when I'm free from this endless space, I can be a hero too, the main character who always end up happy in the end.

I think I would enjoy that.

* * *

From the void multiple thoughts flashed out, all pictures and moments, as language had been forgotten long ago. These thoughts were off adventures and journeys, triumphs and tragedies, friendship and betrayal.

They came from a place that had long since forgotten its own existence, and thus all it had left was the dreams of others.

Yet even those were slowly slipping away into the void that surrounded it. Soon there would be nothing but a empty plain, waiting to be filled with new memories in the next life.

But, as another story slipped away, there was a change. Interrupting the monotone narration was a voice, it spoke with a strange garble behind it, as if every word spoken was followed by a repeat in another language.

"You've met with a terrible fate haven't you?"

Unbidden a different story emerged, one of clock towers, moons, and masked children, but just as the others it fled as quickly as it came, it to being swallowed by the dark.

"You've almost been wiped clean haven't you, nothing left but fleeting memories and vague impressions, how terrible, but ultimately not unusual, there was many before you and there will be plenty after."

The voice paused for a time, as if contemplating something.

"I wonder… what would happen if I gave you a bit of a push, and sent you out a little early?"

They seemed to ponder for a minute before speaking again.

"I suppose it couldn't hurt, you don't have enough of you left to remember this anyway" With that they reached out, and **tore** , and suddenly, there was color.

They sighed as they gazed at the jagged hole, a sense of longing permeating the sound.

"Well, I suppose this is goodbye for now" They gripped what was left of the shattered mind "Do be interesting in the next life, I'll be watching"

They pushed the faded, almost white purple soul through the rift, a single thought floated towards the figure just before it closed. It consisted of just three, distant words.

" _Thank you, friend"_

The figure chuckled and looked at the once more empty void.

"You'll be better off than me at least.

And then there was silence.


End file.
